Spring is always a wonderful time of the year, even if only as that goldilocks time of the year between too cold and too hot. Right now the weather is close to perfect! We’ve loved the blossom on the fruit trees, been swooped by magpies and seen our first snakes of the season. But there’s so much more going on with Madison at the moment!
Lots happening at Granya
New ground is being turned over at Granya as the garden expands up the hill. Kellie has ripped some rows with the tractor and soon we’ll be adding our sweat to turning it into beds for flowers. We’ll grow sunflowers, zinnias, dahlias, snapdragons and asters for sale over summer, then establish raspberries next winter. It is exciting to double our garden space, especially as it has been over 200 square metres already. Praise God that local church members have already offered us raspberry canes, even before we mentioned our plans.
Other significant movements of Granya dirt lately have included holes dug for footings for the new shed, and concrete poured in there. Posts and trusses will hopefully be raised at a mid-November working bee, and the shed will be closer to reality. There is still plenty to do but it is very exciting for tangible progress to be made after so much paper-pushing.
We’ve been on the receiving end of our first ever Fly ‘n’ Build as well, with a Kiwi family spending 17 days working on our property. Between his electrical skills and her prowess in carpentry, plus two helpful teenage girls mowing, gardening, cooking, canoeing… Much progress was made with lots of joyous new experiences. Many thanks to the Risuleo family of Oxford in New Zealand’s South Island. Readers, if you’re interested in doing a similar self-funded working holiday at Granya, please contact Danny.
It has been wonderful to experience the campus buzzing with volunteer workers. On the day Simon Jacob and I poured concrete, Lisa and Maryann were conducting a thorough kitchen stocktake; bananas were drying in the dehydrator, Raquel from Romania was rebuking cobwebs, Ledua was steam-cleaning carpets and couches and Kellie was carving new garden beds on the tractor. After a quiet winter, such bustle and activity is very refreshing and the old place is rejuvenated again.
The School is on its Way
School planning is occupying a great deal of Ely Moore’s time – she’s no longer surnamed Sawyer. Congratulations to Ken and Ely on their wonderful wedding in Manjimup, WA, back in September. Here’s a few words from Ely on the school planning….
School opens in July 2026! The nearness of the time, with both its excitement and its pressure, has stirred our education team forward with fervent prayer and planning. Uppermost in our minds have been questions such as “how can we deliver a training program that is primarily practical, cultivating excellence in manual ability and a self-sacrificing, missionary spirit in our students?”
With these ponderings in mind, we have recently reviewed our mission and vision statements for the school. Curriculum options have been the central theme for much of our prayer, research, and discussions over the last few months, and we are excited to have finally narrowed down and selected our curriculum! Simple, practical, Christ-centred are the key features that God has kept bringing us back to. “Knowing the time” (Romans 13:11) we aim to quickly and efficiently prepare disciples for lifelong gospel work, armed with the health message and skills in industry.
Do you want to know more? Our 5-month training program will run from July-December 2026. Our goal is to release key information about the school by the end of December 2025, including specific dates, course schedule, subject information, and when applications will open. We are in the process of launching a new website and social media page for the school which will enable us to share information and exciting updates more readily and easily. Stay tuned!
The Maker Heals
We are currently south of Adelaide, enjoying bringing The Maker Heals to 20 plus South Australians and a keen young Victorian. On my sixth or seventh program across four states, I’m still staggered by the delight with which gospel and health is received by the folks who attend these programs. Perhaps it’s the warmth of the ten day live-in program as the worship and fellowship seems to smooth the way. This particular group – with ages ranging from 24 to 83 and a range of religious and non-religious backgrounds – are lapping up the information, enduring the three days of fruit fasting and seeing the benefits.
We are looking forward to hosting Mrs Choi at Granya later this month. Our Granya HQ will be bulging with visitors for three weeks as over 30 people learn from the founder of our health program. We are also excited about making The Maker Heals central to our training school curriculum next year, and sending more people out to run this terrific program and make a difference in their community.
Local joinup happening
Much more than sheds and new downlights, however, is the excitement that increased contact with our community is bringing us lately. On the same day we helped a wildlife rescue neighbour build a wombat enclosure, a tradesman who had done test and tag duty for us two months ago called to ask about health programs for a family member in need of detox. Praise the Lord that this man has remembered the spiel we tell all the workers who visit our property. There’s been a neighbour moved by Charlie Kirk’s death visit to ask us about reading the Bible and keeping the Sabbath. And we’ve had someone in town ask if we’re selling veggies this summer. Indeed we are.
We believe that having a town of just 90 souls within a couple of minutes is a wonderful laboratory for us to befriend and evangelise a community. It is a tightknit bunch with its own issues, but we already know and are known by about half the town. Selling fresh local produce door to door and at markets will give us further avenue to friendship this summer. And having a crew of friendly, helpful young scholars on site next year, we are thrilled at the prospect of becoming ever more useful to God in this district.
Please pray for us, friends. We are definitely sensing that God is moving and making things happen, and like the way the world is changing, His moves for us are growing stronger and closer together. If you have some handy tips about folks near you who have a medium-sized tractor for sale, or a decent pile of building timber they don’t want, we’d love to know, especially if you’re not on the other side of the country. If you’re a Music Camp family, we look forward to catching up soon.